Party members in CC and NC – Amendment to the Organising Principles - Glasovanje članova DiEM25

Individual members, including high-ranking members, of political parties continue to be welcome in DiEM25, especially if they have volunteered their time, enriched our events, extended our reach, encouraged their party’s members to join DiEM25, and worked to align their party’s positions more closely with DiEM25. Therefore, we suggest an amendment to the Organising Principles to not completely exclude the possibility of high-ranking party members to take offices in DiEM25.

Right now, the Organising Principles state:

(Election/Selection of the CC:)

All DiEM25 members are eligible to stand for the CC except serving politicians who hold elected office in national parliaments, in the European Parliament, serve as ministers of state in national governments or on the national leadership/executive board of national parties (i.e. positions of major responsibility; membership of political parties, including serving on regional or lower level political party committees, is not included in this provision). An exception is made for those serving on behalf of DiEM25‘s Electoral Wings.

We propose to amend this to:

All DiEM25 members are eligible to stand for the CC, including politicians who serve in national parliaments (except if they are ministers of state), in the European Parliament, or on the leadership/executive board of political parties. Politicians wishing to stand as candidates for the CC must have a track record of active support/work for DiEM25 which is validated by the VC.

If MPs, MEPs or party leaders/board members are elected to the CC, excepting those who serve in parties entirely controlled by DiEM25, special rules apply to them:

- they cannot participate in any financial, strategic or communication decisions concerning their country of work

- they cannot be members of both CC and NC in their country of work (to avoid accumulation of mandates)

- they are always subject to a review of their CC membership. In case irreconcilable contradictions between their political work and DiEM25’s manifesto or other conflicts of interest are suspected, any member can bring a case to the CC, which will add its own input and pass on the case to the Validating Council (VC). The VC will judge whether they need to stand down from the CC.

Also, an equivalent rule should be added to the section on National Collectives (NCs). Right now the Organising Principles do not state anything about who can apply to NCs, meaning that we don’t have any way to prevent politicians of incompatible parties to serve in an NC.

If passed, this amendment would presumably allow Daniela Platsch (candidate #2 on DiEM25’s European election list for Germany and board member of the Austrian party Der Wandel) and Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk (co-chair of the European Spring and recently elected as an independent MP to the Polish parliament) to stay on the CC to which they were elected in August 2019. Rejecting the amendment would force these two to leave. However, the decision to change the OPs should not be based on sympathy with them but should be taken in light of DiEM25’s future development. If DiEM25 wants to grow and increase its political reach, we believe it makes sense to make the rules for CC membership more inclusive, for as long as we have rules to prevent conflicts of interests and a worst-case mechanism to remove them.

Do you agree?